The Hemmings lens at work.

For his annual portrait this year, Winnie insisted on doing the bug-eyed staring thing, though the bright strobe makes things a bit tricky. I sent the lad outside into the bright sun to get acclimated!

Winnie is 11!

The simulated window lighting could hardly be simpler. One Novatron head in a gold umbrella, to the right and above my right shoulder. I make it high enough to get a smidgeon of spill light on top of the hair. This was the first serious outing for my newly machined Hemmings lens, but be careful. Get too close and you might cut yourself.

Nikon D3x, 85mm f/1.8 pre-Ai Nikkor-H at f/5.6, one Novatron head. You can have the current plastic fantastic D or G AF versions for two or three times as much, but you will never know what an optical and mechanical masterpiece is like to hold and use if you go that route. I continue to use the remote strobe radio trigger I cobbled together for a couple of hamburgers some 6 years ago and it has yet to disappoint. Beats on-camera cables any day. I also use a small white balance card in a test snap to properly render skin tone.

Yeah, yeah, tell me all you like about modern optics:

More details on this landmark optic appear here.